Animal Partnerships 



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the cattle ; while a certain plover of Egypt has 

 been considered the friend and ally of the croco- 

 dile ever since Pliny's time. 



It is in Africa, indeed, that the most promi- 

 nent examples of this kind of partnership are 

 seen. To none is the arrangement more im- 

 portant than to the rhinoceros, an animal stupid, 

 short-sighted, and easily approached from any 

 direction that does not carry a warning scent 

 to its sensitive nostrils. But he feeds and sleeps 

 in peace under the watchful care of a flock of 

 starlings, who flutter about him or run up and 

 down his rough back picking off the various 

 ticks and grubs that would keep him itching or 

 perhaps work real harm, and which to them are 

 excellent morsels. Moreover, they are super- 

 naturally keen as watchmen, as hunters well 

 know, for many a fine rhino has got away be- 

 cause the rhinoceros-birds made haste to wake 

 their patron, by pecking at his head and scream- 

 ing in his dull ears until he took warning. 



This same starling, or one like it, may also 

 be seen sitting in rows on the heads and horns 

 of buffaloes when feeding or ruminating, and 

 *>$ 159 $+> 



